The field of information visualization has emerged from research in human-computer interaction, computer science, graphics, visual design, psychology, and business methods. It is increasingly applied as a critical component in scientific research, digital libraries, data mining, financial data analysis, market studies, manufacturing production control, and drug discovery.
Information visualization presumes that visual representations and interaction techniques take advantage of the human eye's broad bandwidth pathway into the mind to allow users to see, explore, and understand large amounts of information at once by detecting patterns. Information visualization focused on the creation of approaches for conveying abstract information in intuitive ways.